Field
The disclosed concept relates generally to sensors systems, and more particularly, to voltage sensor systems.
Background Information
Voltage sensors are used by power utilities to measure the voltage of transmission lines, distribution lines, and busbars. The voltage measurements from these voltage sensors may be used as inputs to a variety of devices such as circuit interrupters. Some types of voltage sensors are inductive voltage transformers (IVTs), capacitive voltage transformers (CVTs), and resistive dividers (RDs).
Some or all of IVTs, CVTs, and RDs suffer from the following limitations: a single sensor cannot measure AC and DC voltage; these sensors require direct wiring to the circuit being measured; these sensors cannot withstand normal and abnormal fluctuations in voltage; these sensors have poor stability over time and temperature; there is power loss associated with these sensors; and some types of these sensors require a special cooling system to remove heat generation due to high power losses. A voltage sensor that can reduce or eliminate these limitations would be desirable.
There is therefore room for improvement in voltage sensors.